Spring Break
DeFrank reminisces about years with Ford
By: Rick Rojas
Issue date: 11/14/07 Section: News
Ford saw the paper, he said, and later joked with him about it.
"He autographed a copy of that Battalion across the headline, and it was probably the most terse autograph I received from him," DeFrank said. The autograph read: "Thanks, Gerald R. Ford."
Spending so much time with Ford, he said, he realized the president had a very reserved demeanor and took the challenges of public life in good humor.
"The truth was he was a good sport, as he was a good sport about everything," DeFrank said.
Given the situation in which he was placed, DeFrank said, that calm temperament could sometimes give way. DeFrank was in the middle of a face-to-face interview with then-Vice President Ford when his press secretary sitting in had to leave to take a phone call and did not return. "A reporter's dream happened," he said: He got to speak to a politician without any "handlers" in the room.
The normally reserved man had fumed for five days after reading an opinion column by William Saffire, a former Nixon aide who became a columnist for the New York Times. Saffire wrote in the piece, published under the headline "Et tu, Jerry," accusing the vice president of trying to take the presidency from Nixon.
"It bugs me that people think I want to be president," Ford said to DeFrank in the conversation. "Dick Nixon knows I've been damn loyal to him."
"He thought he was bending over backwards to defend the man that picked him to be vice president," DeFrank said.
Ford ranted about President Nixon and the press. Then, DeFrank said, Ford realized what he had said to a reporter and tried to backtrack - qualifying his statements, saying it was off the record.
DeFrank remained silent. He said Ford thought the silence meant he disagreed with Ford's words being off the record, probably picturing a piece in the next edition of Newsweek. Instead, DeFrank said, he was scared: Vice President Ford, a tall, athletic man who could have played professional football, was looming over him.
"He autographed a copy of that Battalion across the headline, and it was probably the most terse autograph I received from him," DeFrank said. The autograph read: "Thanks, Gerald R. Ford."
Spending so much time with Ford, he said, he realized the president had a very reserved demeanor and took the challenges of public life in good humor.
"The truth was he was a good sport, as he was a good sport about everything," DeFrank said.
Given the situation in which he was placed, DeFrank said, that calm temperament could sometimes give way. DeFrank was in the middle of a face-to-face interview with then-Vice President Ford when his press secretary sitting in had to leave to take a phone call and did not return. "A reporter's dream happened," he said: He got to speak to a politician without any "handlers" in the room.
The normally reserved man had fumed for five days after reading an opinion column by William Saffire, a former Nixon aide who became a columnist for the New York Times. Saffire wrote in the piece, published under the headline "Et tu, Jerry," accusing the vice president of trying to take the presidency from Nixon.
"It bugs me that people think I want to be president," Ford said to DeFrank in the conversation. "Dick Nixon knows I've been damn loyal to him."
"He thought he was bending over backwards to defend the man that picked him to be vice president," DeFrank said.
Ford ranted about President Nixon and the press. Then, DeFrank said, Ford realized what he had said to a reporter and tried to backtrack - qualifying his statements, saying it was off the record.
DeFrank remained silent. He said Ford thought the silence meant he disagreed with Ford's words being off the record, probably picturing a piece in the next edition of Newsweek. Instead, DeFrank said, he was scared: Vice President Ford, a tall, athletic man who could have played professional football, was looming over him.
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